{"id":11539,"date":"2021-03-04T13:15:05","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T12:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/?p=11539"},"modified":"2025-01-21T10:16:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T09:16:12","slug":"webinar-promotion-joint-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodpecker.co\/blog\/webinar-promotion-joint-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can You Hack Your Webinar Promotion with Joint Ventures?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2021, we\u2019re still using webinars to connect with our prospects. They\u2019re an economical and scalable way of filling our pipelines with fresh leads. You\u2019ve probably hosted several ones yourself and fell in love with this format.<\/span><\/p>\n

You may be wondering how to squeeze even more juice from your online events. Even if you provide excellent value for your participants, you need to do webinar marketing to gather a decent audience. All in all, your prospects need to know that you\u2019re holding an online event.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re promoting webinars but are not satisfied with the ROI of PPC campaigns<\/a><\/span> or organic social media activity, joint ventures may be an excellent alternative. With <\/span>higher conversion rates at zero or minimal cost, they are a great webinar promotion hack for 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

In this article, I explain <\/span>why joint ventures are more effective<\/b> than standard event promotion techniques and <\/span>how to promote a webinar <\/b>step by step using them. Let\u2019s dive deep!<\/span><\/p>\n

Higher conversion at lower cost<\/span><\/h2>\n

We talked about webinar promotion with <\/span>Jon Schumacher<\/span><\/a>, a webinar expert for the B2B sector (<\/span>watch the full talk here<\/span><\/a>). His experience proves what we\u2019ve suspected long before:\u00a0<\/span>PPC campaigns are not as effective for promoting webinars as they used to be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you achieve a high number of registrations, says Jon, these people are likely not to show up. Especially if you target those that don\u2019t know your brand yet\u2014they treat your webinar as another freebie and eventually don\u2019t join. As a result, <\/span>the attendance rate may be as low as 15%.<\/p>\n

Joint ventures can be an effective alternative way of promoting webinars. By a joint venture I mean inviting another company or influencer to join your online event as a co-host or guest. But not <\/span>any <\/span><\/i>company or influencer: these should be the ones that already have your prospects within their community. When promoting your joint event, you\u2019re using their marketing channels to reach exactly the people you\u2019re looking for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Including a joint venture in your webinar marketing plan is a great way of gathering a high-quality audience without spending money on paid ads. As these people are connected to the company you\u2019re collaborating with, the<\/span> attendance rates for this webinar promotion method are much higher. Jon talks about even 30-40% compared to 15% from PPC.<\/p>\n

How to find a webinar joint venture partner<\/span><\/h2>\n

You can use several methods to find the right joint venture partner. If you have a diversified professional network, you\u2019re likely to find them among the people you know. If the topic of your event is highly specific, you may need to do cold outreach. In both cases, you\u2019ll need to pitch your event idea and give the potential partner a reason to accept your proposal.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s <\/span>how to establish a joint venture for your webinar marketing plan, step by step.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step #1: Identify potential partners<\/span><\/h3>\n

Before you send a cold email to your potential webinar partners, you need to do a bit of thinking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Start with your prospects<\/b>. What kind of information are they looking for? What insights would be interesting for them? What would bring additional value to them?<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you answer these questions, think about the <\/span>characteristics of the companies or influencers<\/b> you could partner with. Who can provide your prospects with these insights? What industry should they come from? Should it be an SME or a corporation? What should they specialize in?<\/span><\/p>\n

With this specification, you may <\/span>start looking for potential partners<\/b>. Just like in sales prospecting, it\u2019s important to limit your search to these requirements<\/span>\u2014<\/span>otherwise, you\u2019ll end up wasting your time on contacting irrelevant people. Remember that a joint venture is not only a webinar marketing tool. Your partner is meant to complement your event content with relevant insights.<\/span><\/p>\n

Start with the<\/span> companies from your professional network<\/b>. These may be your business partners, contractors or clients. It may help you maintain a good relationship with them as they\u2019ll feel appreciated if you invite them to join your event as experts. If you run a B2B business, you may also engage your leads and warm them up as a side effect.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you don\u2019t have any matches around you, <\/span>talk to your colleagues<\/b>. You may be surprised what people they have in their networks. To make it faster, look in their LinkedIn networks.<\/span><\/p>\n

If these methods don\u2019t work for you, <\/span>go beyond the companies you know<\/b>. Look for them using Google, LinkedIn, Quora, or aggregating platforms. For example, if you\u2019re looking for a software agency, use <\/span>Clutch<\/span><\/a>. For SaaS providers, try <\/span>Capterra<\/span><\/a>. When looking for marketing insights, go to <\/span>Inbound.org<\/span><\/a>. There are many other places where you can find your partners. Go to <\/span>this blog post<\/span><\/a> for more ready-made search ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Remember to <\/span>look up your potential partners on LinkedIn <\/b>or other social media. Chances are that someone from your company will be able to introduce you to them. In such a context, it\u2019ll be much easier for you to convince them to join you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Step #2: Find their data<\/span><\/h3>\n

Once you have a spreadsheet with potential webinar promotion partners, fill it with their data. Why bother? Because you\u2019ll probably need to contact more than one person. The chances are higher if you reach out to someone you know, but they may still be unavailable on the given date or don\u2019t feel secure enough to talk about your topic.<\/span><\/p>\n

For your <\/span>personal connections<\/b>, you\u2019ll only need their first names and emails. You probably have them. If not, try to find them on the web. You may be connected on social media and thus don\u2019t have their email addresses, but I highly recommend getting them (e.g. by asking them to give it to you because you have something really cool to forward to them). If you use social media to contact them, you won\u2019t be able to measure your efforts. Moreover, tracking responses on various platforms usually leads to chaos.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you decide to reach out to<\/span> someone you don\u2019t know<\/b>, you should have the find the following data:<\/span><\/p>\n